Projectile



J. B. SEMPLE.

PROJEGTILE. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 1913.

Patented Aug: 4, 1914.

INVENTOR At a JOHN B. SEMPLE, OF SEWICKLEY, PENNSYLVANIA.

PROJEOTILE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 4:, 1914.

Application filed June 6, 1913. Serial No. 7 22.143.

' To all whom it /MZQ/ concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN B. SEMPLE, residing at Sewickley, in the countyof Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, a citizen of the United States,have invented or discovered certain new and useful Improvements inProjectiles, of which improvements the following is a specification. 7

My invention relates to improvements in fuses for the bursting chargesof explosive projectiles and its ob ect is to afford a fuse selective inits delay'action in this respect that, in case the projectile strikes alight obstruction (suchnas a thin plate), the fuse will operate withoutdelay, to explode the bursting charge; but, in case the projectilestrikes a heavy obstruction (such as a thick armor late), the-operationof the fuse will be delayed-the object in view in either case is thatthe projectile shall explode immediately after it has penetrated theplate. I

A fuse embodying my present inventlon is illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings,

in which c 'Figure 1 shows in longitudinal section a projectile with thefuse in place therein, and Fig. 2 is a similar. view and on larger scaleof the fuse detached from the projectile. A certain detail of structurepermitting of modification, is shown in alternative form in these twofigures.

Corresponding parts are numbered to correspond.

The projectile itself is indicated by the numeral 1; and, since myinvention has to do with a fuse for a bursting charge. the projectile isnecessarily one provided with a cavity containing a bursting charge.This cavity is indicated by the numeral 2.

Secured in the body of the projectile,- and preferably in its base isthe fuse. It consists, essentially, of a stock or block, 3, carrying ina suitable chamber all-ignition charge, 4, and means 'for firing saidignition charge under proper conditions. To this end, the chambercontaining the ignition charge is arranged at the anterior end of thestructure and is closed rearwardly by a cap-socket,"5,

' provided with a. percussion-cap, 6, and with a duct, 7 leading fromsaid cap to the chamber containing the ignition charge. Rearward of saidcap socket 5 is a firing-plunger 8, and these parts are so arranged andas sembled that normally the firing-plunger is spaced at an intervalfrom the cap socket, but that when the pro ectile strikes, the impactwill cause the plunger totfaverse the lnterveni'ng spaceand, deliveringa blow, to fire the ignition cap, thus firing in turn the ignitionchargeand eventually the burster charge in chamber 2.

A convenient arrangement-is that shown in 'the drawings. Thefiring-plunger is placed in a chamber rearward of the cap socket and ismovable therein in the direction of the length of the projectile; thefirand it is with such a use, generally, that my present inyention hasto do, regardless of its more specific construction.

The ignition chamber, and theineans for vfiring the charge within it(which, in this instance consist essentially of the cap socket with itscap v and the hammer-block) are borne on the stock 3 in any suitablemanner.

be varied, and I limit my invention to no specific form of union assuch; specifylng only that it shall be secure under all conditions ofhandling and service, short of the relatively great shock produced whena projectile carrying it strikes such an obstruction as an armor plate,but that under such a shock it shall be frangible. In Fig.1 the union isshown to be accomplished in the crimping of the posterior rim 11 ofcasing 10 upon a rearwardly tapering neck 12 formed on block 3, and inFig. 2 I have shown a screw-thread connection 13, relatively weakbecausev of the shallowness of the threads and the small number ofturns;

but, as I have said, any union whose securitv penetration is less thanthe certain critical.

amount-21 target, be it understood, of, relatively light plate-the unionof the fuse to its stock will hold secure, the fuse will. operate atonce, and explosion will follow. But if the projectile in its flightstrikes a mark or target whose resistance to penetration is greaterthan. the critical am0unt-that is to say a heavy armor plate-the unionof the fuse case to the stock will, under the greater shock, be tornapart, and the operation of the fuse will be delayed; for the whole fusstructure will-set forward within chamber 2 until its progress isarrested by the body of explosive m'aterialwithin the chamber, whereuponthe. fuse will operate, and explosion ensue. It has been proved byactual firing that, notwithstanding the difference between theresistance offered to the movement ofthe firing plunger (the tension ofspring 9), and the resistance to forward movement of the case 10 (theweak threads of the block 3 or equivalent means), the cap socketcontaining the cap and the firing plunger with its firing point moveforward together, and the interval between the cap and the point is notclosed, until the case 10 brings up solidly against the compressedbursting charge of the shell. The delay in action thus provided for isdesigned to affor'd time-minute but adequate-for the projectile topenetrate (if it be able) the armor which it has struck, to the end thatexplosion ma occur after penetration.

I have in ig. lshown the fuse member extending forward from its stockinto the chamber 2. It will be understood that this chamber is otherwisefilled with explosive material. Ordinarily this mass of explosivematerial will be sufficiently yieldin and will not fill the chamber socompact y, but that the forward and operative end of the fuse, when onceit has broken from the stock, will drive forward an appreciable distanceinto the body of explosive material,- before being stopped and (bystopping) fired. If the explosive material employed be of a denselycompressed nature, a sufiicient space may be left when the material isbeing packed in the chamber 2, to permit of the forward drive of thesevered fuse members under .conditions described.

It will be understood that any arrangement ofthe fuse with relation tothe chamber 2 is permissible, so long as the ignition of charge 4will-whatever the position of the fusegain access to the body ofexplosive material in chamber 2.

As shown in the drawings, the forward endof the fuse is blunt-pointed,to adapt it to drive forward into the body of material in chamber 2.Vents 14 from the chamber which contains the ignition charge 4 to thechamber 2 may be protected by a ring 15 of such nature as to allow thepassage of the flash of the magazine charge 4:.

It will be understood that the invention now described is applicable toa detonating fuse, equally as well as to the ignition fuse shown, andthis without change in the parts described as constituting theinvention.

I claim herein as my invention: v 1. A projectile fuse operated byimpact and attached to a projectile body by a union secure a'gainstlight straintand destructible under heavy strain, substantially asdescribed. 7 j

2. In a projectile, a fuse normally carried by the projectile body andincluding a firing member movable in the fuse body on a sudden change invelocity, the union .of the said fuse to said projectile body frangibleon a sudden and greater change in velocity, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereuntoset my hand.

JOHN B. SEMPLE.

Witnesses:

M. A. Cli-uusry, FRANCIS J. TOMASSON.

copies of this patent may be obtained for m cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Iatents,

Washington, D. 0."

